[Federalist] Former President Donald Trump spent Thursday sitting in a Florida courtroom while his opponent, President Joe Biden, hit the campaign trail — a reminder that Democrats’ 2024 campaign strategy of "get Trump" lawfare is dangerous election interference regardless of the outcomes of particular prosecutions.
Biden spoke to voters in Michigan and Wisconsin this week and is slated to visit North Carolina soon as he tries to patch potential holes in the "blue wall." Meanwhile, Trump appeared in court to defend himself from special prosecutor Jack Smith’s relentless campaign to jail the former president.
After the hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied one of Trump’s motions to dismiss the Biden Justice Department’s classified documents case against him. Cannon argued in a two-page ruling it would be premature to decide now whether the Espionage Act’s applicability to a former president is unconstitutionally vague, as Trump’s team argues. (Cannon has not yet ruled on another motion to dismiss, which argues Trump had "unreviewable discretion" to designate documents as personal under the Presidential Records Act.)
But in doing so, Cannon gave Trump’s team the opportunity to raise the issues during the trial.
"Although the Motion raises various arguments warranting serious consideration, the Court ultimately determines ... that resolution of the overall question presented depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged, along with at least some disputed factual issues," Cannon wrote. She opted "to deny the Motion without prejudice, to be raised as appropriate in connection with jury-instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions." |